I want to offer you some suggestions for summertime professional development.
Recharge your PhysEd Battery
I know a lot of us are thinking now it’s summertime, we’ve gotten through this school year. We need a little bit of a break, which is totally true. I mean, we all need that. We need that release to get to the summer, to regroup, recharge the batteries. A couple things that I would suggest after you’ve gotten to that point is to recharge your Phys Ed battery. Maybe it’s something where you’re looking at taking college courses, you’re taking graduate courses, trying to refresh some ideas or to further your education in that aspect.
Online Professional Development Resources
Some other opportunities are available if you dig around. Some great ways to find great educational material without leaving your house is to search for Phys Ed blogs. There’s some great blogs out there – Gopher has a great blog. I have some colleagues on the Gopher board that do a great job of sharing their ideas and thoughts. I know there are some other ones when you search on the Internet, you’ll find some really good ideas, some good information.
Professional Development Trainings
Another opportunity you could have is to dig for some trainings. Maybe there’s some small trainings that might cost you a little bit of money here and there. Maybe there’s some free ones. In Pennsylvania where I live, I offer a free Phys Ed summit every year. It’s sponsored by Gopher. It’s great way to come and network with people. It’s a great way to get some new, fresh ideas. We have presenters coming from around the country to, to show us and to teach us different ideas. You know, it’s always great to hear what somebody else is doing and it’s really great to hear what somebody else is doing on the other side of the country. Maybe it’s something that we’re doing here in Pennsylvania and we’re like, oh, we’re all kind of on the same page. Maybe it’s something that, wow, we never thought of something like that. That’d be a great thing to try. We’re going to utilize it in our daily offerings at our school. It’s just a great way to enrich yourself. It’s a great way to rejuvenate yourself as you get ready to head back into the next school year next fall.
Set Up a Planning Meeting with your PE Department
Some other ideas that you could maybe do is to maybe have a meeting within your own Phys Ed department at your school district.
Maybe you decide, hey, let’s let’s take a day to get together. Some school districts will give you a day off or a comp day for that where you can come in, you can evaluate your current program. You can look at things you maybe need to tweak. Maybe things you need to get rid of. Maybe there’s things you want to add? Maybe you’ve done some, you’ve all done some research and decided, hey, we want to change our program. We want to change the culture of Phys Ed at our high school, or our middle school, at our elementary schools. We want to try and get parents more active. We want to try and get students more active. And that’s a good thing to do in the summer when you’re free of the daily routines of school. You have that time where you can get together with your colleagues and sit down and really take a good hard look at what it is you do every year.
And maybe you decide, hey, this is the year we’re going to make a big change or we’re going to make a small change. But some kind of change is always great for you, for your students, for your program, for your school district. It’s a great way to promote what we do as Phys Ed teachers. It doesn’t really cost anything for you to come into school and sit down with your colleagues. If you can get together as a group and go to those trainings, that’s even better because if there’s multiple presenters, you can divide and conquer. You can send a couple to one presenter or a couple to another presenter and a couple to the other ones. That way you’re all getting some information to bring back to maybe that meeting that you have later as a department and say, Hey, this is what we learned at ours.
This is what we learned at ours. You bring it all together, wrap it up. You guys can start the school year rejuvenated from that wonderful break of enjoying some summertime relaxation plus for that time together as a department and that time together to enrich yourselves at conferences or trainings. Maybe you took some personal time to look at some blogs to try and see what it is you want to do to to make your program better and make yourself a better Phys Ed teacher. Great Opportunity. Don’t pass it up. Take advantage of it.
